The Seven Unite Part IV: The Raven Vs The Typhoon
by WhitePhoenix52
Summary: The McFalen Raven was just completed. It's first mission: Destroy the Typhoon. The battle between these two birds has begun. The fate of Crisis II, Ron's homeworld is laying in the balance. Can Ron defeat a modification of his own bird?


The Seven Unite

Part IV: Typhoon Vs. The Raven

Ron saw the terror and destruction flaring in the Raven's blood red eyes, and knew that there was no escaping this battle. He knew that a dogfight of this magnitude would likely harm the others. By the time Ron had his setting right for his plan, he was nearly knocked from the controls from the force of the Raven's ramming. Impact after impact, the Raven's collision's with the Typhoon had no negative effect on itself. Not a scratch was made on the smooth silver body of the Raven.

"Why do you not retaliate?! I've been dreaming of this moment! The day I would finally be at the controls of the deadliest weapon ever conceived! And what better opponent than you! Now show me that you're not just a waste of time!" McFalen shouted directly into his microphone. Ron remained silent at McFalen's words and did what must be done. He activated the release of the main hull and back room where everyone one was to be separated from the parts of the ship that Ron needed to battle.

He saw the pod that was once the Typhoon's hull descend to the planet surface of Crisis II. The Typhoon was now fully prepared for battle, and a challenging battle at that. Ron employed the Typhoon's powerful eye lasers, hoping to scar the Raven as he did Ralph in their duel. An intense red beam streamed from the Typhoon's powerful crimson eyes, speeding towards the body of the Raven.

The Raven sped out of the way of the laser, and continued to make it's way to the Typhoon. Ron was struggling to get a direct hit on the Raven. The silver bird's speed was much quicker than Ron's maneuvering, but when the Raven got too close, there was no time to dodge the beam. The damage was no more than a small scar on the left wing of the Raven. Ron cut the beam off to avoid draining all of his energy supply or overheating his cannons.

But Ron's cease fire provided ample time for Ralph to make his assault. The Raven made a fierce uppercut with it's head to the Typhoon's neck area, right above the cockpit. Because of the pointed structure on the back of the Raven's head, a harsh perforation was made into the Typhoon's neck. Lucky there wasn't any risk of damaging the air seal. Ron decided he would try stabbing the same way McFalen did, to see just how tough the Raven's armor was.

The Typhoon zoomed in at a greater velocity than the Raven used, quickly thrust upwards, aiming for the Raven's neck area. But Ralph saw right through Ron's quick strategy, and quickly came up with a counter of his own. With perfect timing, the Raven quickly moved aside from the Typhoon's uppercut, then gouged his long sharp blue beak into the belly of the Typhoon. The Raven quickly yanked out its beak along with a large piece of metal still attached, like it was the torn flesh of a real bird.

The Transport that Ron's friends were in was barely able to endure the heat of reentry, and was nearly destroyed when it impacted the surface. Each and everyone was safe, but Miles, being the youngest, was terrified by the experience. Tails was the only one who wasn't too disoriented to open the exit. The door was the same one they had used before, one by one exited, having to climb up to the door for the hull was turned on it's side. Tails inspected the outside of the hull and found that there was nothing life support systems and minor electronics within the hull. None of the controls they waited at could have ever done a thing.

"He tricked us." Tails concluded when the others gathered around. "This thing is just a big cargo hold. The controls weren't even real." Tails was disappointed.

"I'm sure Ron thought this was a good enough reason." Rebecca commented. "For all we know, we could have been torn to bits by now." The five stared up at the sky trying to see if they could sight the two birds amongst the stars. Tails grew bored quickly. He grasped Rebecca's hand, and led her away from the others. Tails's eyes reflected love, while Rebecca's reflected regret.

"I'm glad everyone is ok, especially you." Tails admitted. Rebecca pulled her hands from Tails's grasp, and sighed softly. "Is something wrong?"

Rebecca was silent for moments, thinking of what to say. She finally gained her confidence, and took a mild tone with her voice. "How can you say that?"

"Say what?" Tails was confused.

"That everyone made it out untouched. Have you already forgotten that Robotnik died?" Rebecca was trying her best not to shed a tear.

"But now no part of the universe will have to suffer his evil ways, especially Freedom, our home." Tails responded.

"He changed. He wasn't evil anymore. Everyone saw that he was trustworthy." Rebecca was becoming frustrated.

"How could we trust him? After all he did to you? After all he did to Sonic, Knuckles, my brother? After he tried to kill all of us, you trusted him?" Tails shouted. "I know Sonic didn't trust him. I know Knuckles didn't trust him. For all of those years of his terror, he deserved much worse than what he got."

Rebecca felt tears running down her face. "So it's true. You turned out just like your friends." Tails reached to wipe her tears, but Rebecca slapped his hands away. "I thought you tried to not turn out just the way your friends did, but all you've shown me is that you're a hypocrite." Rebecca raged. "If you can't trust your friends, why should you trust me?" Rebecca walked away from the impact site, trying her best not to regret the decision she made.

The pain inside Rebecca's heart was equal to the pain suffered by the Typhoon. It looked like the blue bird's heart had been torn right out of its chest. Oil and other fluids ran like blood, as Ron was still trying to conjure up an effective plan to defeat the Raven, who was still far from a deathly blow.

Ron tried to remember all of the strong points in the Typhoon's design. He remembered that the wings had a sharp hook in the front middle. He might be able to inflict major damage, if his aim was precise, and at top speed. He set the wings to a closed position for maximum speed. He waited for the perfect coordinates, and then thrust the boosters forward with all his might.

McFalen read the meter on his panel that indicated distance of targets, and assumed that Ron had gone crazy. "He headed straight for me at top speed. He's on a collision course!" McFalen deducted. "No, he wouldn't throw his life away now. He's trying to trick me into moving. Well it won't work. He'll move before he's a stones throw away."

The Typhoon continued on its course, the engines blazing, nearly overheating. McFalen continued straight forward as he decided. In a matter of seconds, the Typhoon zoomed by in a blur, the hook of its wing ripping through the body of the Raven. The gash ran from the top of the Raven's back down to it right tail feather. Many wires were ruptured and severed from the strike.

Ralph read the damage report on a screen. He lost control of the right tail feather, which would slightly cripple the Raven's advanced maneuvering. "Nice move Mr. Prower, but now you shall see what the wings of a raven can do." Ralph sneered. The Raven spread its wings, not for maximum speed, but it was enough to match the speed of Ron's previous attack.

When the Raven's wing ripped through the body of the Typhoon, the damage was much worse. Not only did it gash through the Typhoon's back, similarly to the Raven's wound, but the force of the impact was strong enough the remove a large armor plate off of the body of the Typhoon. It was becoming clearer and clearer to Ron that the Raven was a far superior bird.

Ron continued to scheme of an attack, while escaping more strikes from the Raven. He tried to look at every aspect of his bird while trying to analyze the weaknesses of the Raven. He found that it would be very hard to find such a weakness, much less exploit it on a bird of this durability.

On the surface of Crisis II, Rebecca had continued to wander away from the others for several minutes. When she realized she was far enough to see the others, she spotted the white bird. At first she thought she was hallucinating. She walked over and saw that it really was the white bird that she knew she could trust.

The bird stared up at the sky, as if it could see the two rivals dueling. Rebecca made her way up to the bird, and felt his wing over her shoulder. She snuggled against the bird's warm wing, like she was a child. She felt like a child under his wing. She saw the bird look back up to the sky, wondering if he really could see the battle. She looked up, and found that she could see it perfectly as well.

Rebecca felt a chill down her spine as she saw the damage that was just inflicted on the Typhoon. She noticed the gash on the Raven, but that was the only damage it had. She saw that Ron was struggling to avoid McFalen's attacks, and felt like she would start weeping again. "There has to be something we can do." She said to the bird, as if it were a parent. "He needs help, Ron can't win alone. That's why we all came here, to help each other." Rebecca explained. The bird looked down on Rebecca, wanting to say something. Rebecca felt unusual when the bird stared at her. "We can help him, can't we?"

The bird took his wing off of Rebecca, and then lowered his back for Rebecca to get on. She was very hesitant, not about getting on, but about where they might go. If they were going to head into space, she was afraid that she may think the bird wasn't so trustworthy. "We're not going into space are we?" Rebecca asked nervously. The bird gave a nod, and then prepared to begin flight. "But don't you know that I can't survive in space?" The bird remained still, waiting for Rebecca to make her decision. She thought hard and finally decided to stay on.

The bird spread its wings, then took off from the ground, and they were increasing altitude quick. Rebecca grew nervous and was taking short rapid breaths, afraid that her doom was nigh. Moments went by, and Rebecca was still able to breath.

She looked around and saw that she and the bird were surrounded by a blaze of fire. She assumed that being surrounded by the fire was somehow able to keep an air seal. She couldn't see past the flames so she didn't know where the bird was taking her. But now she knew that the bird was completely trustworthy.

Ron was becoming desperate for a strategy. After minutes of dodging small attacks, Ron decided he would have to take a risk and hope that Ralph's defenses couldn't handle his best attack. Ron adjusted the slant of the wings, pointed the beak straight forward, forced the boosters to maximum power and hoped for the best. The blue bird transformed into it's raging typhoon twist attack.

"Really Mr. Prower, I expected better from you." Ralph taunted. "I'll show you a real attack. Meet the Raven Wrath!" The two tail feathers to the side shifted position for maximum spin velocity. Soon the Raven was spinning equally to the speed of the Typhoon. The two raging birds we're on course to collide, head to head. One a blue and red blur, the other blue and silver. Ron knew that even if they were spinning at equal speed, the Raven would still most likely win the round for it's superior durability.

Rebecca could barely see the two making their attacks, and realized that the white bird was heading towards their point of collision. She held onto the bird as tight as she could, not knowing whether or not she, or even the bird would survive. The three birds met at one point and the two rivals' impact with the blaze of the white bird caused a blinding light. The mighty white bird spread it heavenly wings, and stopped the birds' attacks with it's blaze.

The white bird retreated back to the planet surface, with Rebecca still safe, still shrouded by the intense light. The two rival birds were damaged, but neither one was killed. Both of the pilots looked around the area, confused at how both survived without fatal damage. Both checked their own damage reports and found that only their energy shields had been weakened, drastically.

Ron looked at a meter on his panel and saw that it would take some time to gather the energy for the Typhoon Twist. He saw the Raven making another charge, perhaps trying to make another deadly puncture. The Typhoon was barely able to move after all of the energy it just lost. "Give up! I know everything about that pathetic excuse for a bird!" McFalen shouted. Then Ron finally realized that Ralph was right.

"You're right, Ralph, you do know everything about my bird. And there reason is because you acquired my blueprints somehow." Ron announced. "Whatever low-life method you used to steal my blueprints will end up costing you, because what better basis to design your own bird from, than the blueprints of the original?"

"Shut up! You haven't changed this fight a bit!" Ralph shouted back.

"It's changed alright, because this whole time you knew my weaknesses, and why? Because you knew your own. My weaknesses are yours as well. And I know the one weakness you never would have thought of." Ron said with confidence in his voice.

"I'd like to see you prove it!" McFalen shouted sarcastically.

"So come and get me." Ron dared. Ralph jumped at the opportunity to charge at the Typhoon, zeroing in faster than ever. Ron maneuvered the Typhoon to a certain part of Crisis II, the Raven following close behind. Ron was looking over the map he received from Cap'n a few days ago. It displayed a large hole in the surface of the planet. Ron just had to make it look like he wanted to duel on the surface long enough to lead the Raven inside with him.

Ralph was furious now. His entire secret was compromised, along with his edge over Ron. Not only did he lose his advantage, but he lost his calm attitude. He was so angry he couldn't see straight, which was bad since he was now firing the Raven's eye lasers. During the chase, they encountered nothing but wasteland, which was surprising to Ron since he expected something a little more from his home world.

The chase eventually led to the area where Ron's friend's had crash landed. The Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Miles were all terrified when they finally saw what Ron was up against. Rebecca was the only who didn't quake in fear, since she had already seen it. She didn't realize before that the white bird disappeared after his selfless assault. She looked around for him, but there was no trace. Nothing, but a feather. Rebecca saw it was white, and was confident that Ron would emerge victorious.

When Ralph saw that they passed over Ron's friends, he took the opportunity to do some real damage, although he usually doesn't perform so ungentlemanly. He fired his laser, hoping to hit someone, but even if he didn't succeed in killing anyone, it would still give them quite a scare. He had to try anything to get at Ron's nerves. By the time Ron turned around, the Raven had just finished it's second pass, and was coming around for a third.

Rebecca was still thinking about the feather, and didn't realize that the Raven was on course to strike her with the laser. Miles wasn't finished with his acts of kindness just yet, so he did the first thing that came to his mind. He ran as fast as he could to get Rebecca out of the way. He would have called out to Rebecca, but he wasn't thinking, he was about to panic.

He tackled Rebecca to knock her out of the way. And when Miles was still in the air, the laser ran between he and Rebecca. Rebecca sat up to see the Raven go by, and soon it was led away by Ron, who realized that he made a crucial mistake. Rebecca looked down at Miles, and very nearly became sick to her stomach.

Miles tried to get up, but was dizzy. He looked down, and saw a puddle of blood. He was afraid to look if Rebecca had an injury, but found nothing. Then his mind filled with complete dread. He looked down upon himself, and saw that his left fore arm was missing. Cut in half, with more and more blood running from the wound. The smell of the burned flesh and bone nearly made him vomit. His eyesight went blurry, and soon he fainted.

Ron knew he had to try and lead the Raven into the hole in the surface, but was too afraid that he might not follow. But he couldn't let another attack on his friends go by. He decided to go for it and hope for the best. The Typhoon approached a large opening in the ground, the Typhoon was puny compared to the size of the opening. The inside that he could see was plated with metal. He dove inside and hoped that the Raven would follow.

To Ron's surprise, McFalen was eager to continue the chase. The interior of the hole was lined with tubing and metal and had ample lighting. Ron figured it lead to the center of this planet, which made sense seeing as how Crisis II was an artificial planet. Further down, the tunnel split into two directions. The left was closed off while the right was open. Ron decided he would turn right since it was the only passage open. But in seconds, the right quickly shut, and the left became open. Ron took this opportunity and boosted down the left passage way before it closed up again.

The Raven followed close behind, not wanting to screw up either. Ron noticed the map displayed and found that it was a map of the interior of the planet. Apparently there was an entire net of tunnels that ran under the surface, and every few hundred miles was a tunnel leading back to the surface, only none of them had openings. Ron noticed the core at the center of the entire net. "That would be perfect." Ron said as he formulated a plan.

Ralph was plotting too. "What a dolt. He's leading me to the core of the planet. He's making it too easy." Ralph snickered at Ron's mistake. Since Ralph didn't have a map, nor did he know his way around the net, he would have to follow Ron, who seemed to know the way. Ralph had to make sure that Ron didn't find that he didn't have any maps of the area, or else Ron would purposely stay away from the core.

The deeper and deeper they went through the tunnels, there were more turns and ways to go, which made this net a difficult puzzle to solve. "So this is the genius behind Crisis II" Ralph assumed. "The entire net is so complex it would take most elite pilots days to navigate through the net successfully. By then they would be gunned down by defenses. And yet, there are no defenses here." Ralph observed. "Ha! Mr. Prower you make it way too easy." Ralph sneered.

Throughout the entire net of tunnels, the Raven followed the Typhoon's precise maneuvering. Within minutes the two entered a large area where the power core resided. The area was big enough to hold at least one thousand Federation flagships, which was reasonable for the inside of a planet. The battle could resume like it did in the frontier of space. Ron was ready to employ his strategy, Ralph was ready for victory.

"You do realize Mr. Prower that in your feeble attempt to trap me within your home world, you've led me to the very weakness of any planet: the core" Ralph announced.

"No! Dammit!" Ron cursed as Ralph's laugh echoed over the speaker.

"Now Prepare for the Destruction of Crisis!" Ralph screamed with pride. The Raven fired it's eye lasers with maximum power at the energy core, Ron could only watch in horror as doom drew ever nearer. Ralph's laugh could be heard throughout the area. The beam closed in on the core as Ron could only watch and shed a tear for his failure.

Ralph's laugh was abruptly silenced as the laser beam was reflected and bounced away from the core. "What! What the Hell happened?" Ralph shouted with anger. Ron was still silent, confused as much as Ralph was. Ralph's eye finally pointed out the problem. He read an energy field around the core, which deflected the beam and repelled it. "Damn, wasn't as easy as I thought." Ralph muttered.

Ron was still staring, and again shed a tear, this time out of happiness. Ron started laughing at Ralph's failure, but it's echo was not evil like Ralph's was. "Stop! Cease your laughing!" Ralph commanded.

"Not only did you fail to destroy the core, but you've set a trap for your self." Ron alerted.

"Enough with your delusions!" Ralph barked. Ron didn't respond, but instead took aim and fired his eye laser at the core. With his aim at the perfect angle, the beam reflected back towards the Raven, but missed, and went for the wall of the giant spherical room. "Ha! You still missed. So much for your trap!" Ralph taunted. But unknown to him, the laser bounced off of the wall behind the Raven, and ricocheted and hit directly on the back of the Raven.

Ralph was beginning to wince from the damage that his bird took. "How, where did that come from?" Ralph shouted.

"That is your weakness!" Ron shouted back. "These birds are clearly most vulnerable in the back of the head, where none of it's defenses can reach. This weakness I'm hoping to improve later." Ron explained. "And since we're surrounded in a virtual pair of mirrors, there's no escaping this attack!"

"You forget, since we have the same weaknesses, your bird is as vulnerable to that attack as mine is." Ralph snapped back.

"True my bird shares the same weakness, but by now your energy supply should have drained too far to be in shape to fire your laser. While my power supply may take time to recharge, but it keeps coming back no matter what!" Ron declared.

Ralph was so angry he was pounding on his control panel. Then he thought of on last strategy. "Fine, your eye laser strategy is superior to mine. But what good will it do if your source of deflection was destroyed?" Ralph said sinisterly.

"You can't destroy the core or the walls, you've already tried." Ron contradicted.

"I still have an attack that will work." Ralph warned. Ralph scanned the area of the wall. His eye read an area of intense pressure on the wall, and luckily for Ralph, he still had the correct navigation through the tunnel network on his panel. "A certain spot in this wall will do some damage to the planet, and disrupt the force field causing the deflections. I may not be able to even touch it with my laser, but it doesn't stand a chance against the Raven's Wrath!"

Ron watched as the Raven began to speed up and start spinning at high speed. The impact took it's toll on the Raven. It was becoming scarred with each complete rotation, but was slowly making it's way through the wall and into a tunnel on the other side. The Raven disappeared in an explosion, and soon a chain reaction was started. Explosions began occurring all around the wall and had soon activated a defense mechanism.

One by one the escape tunnels filled with fire, making it nearly impossible to breach. Ron headed for the tunnel directly behind him, and would have to navigate from there. As he went through the labyrinth of tunnels, every other was sealed off by a heavily armored door. Ron was on a correct path, but it was becoming more and more dangerous. He barley made it out of some tunnels that flooded with fire.

The next minute was the longest in his life, barely making turns in time, nearly surviving. Ron only had one more tunnel to breach, but it was sealed off by an armored door. He knew his only way out was the Typhoon Twist, so he hoped that the chaos emeralds could hold out just one more time. He had reached maximum spin velocity when he reached the door. Second went by like minutes with the tension. Slowly, the beak of the blue bird drilled a hole, and it was soon barely large enough for the Typhoon to fit through.

The Typhoon slowly made its way out of the final portal and made a soft landing by activating its tank tracks to smooth out the force of the landing. The tracks slowly came to a stop and Ron put everything on stand by. He sighed with relief as he saw no sign of the Raven. he exited the Typhoon and looked back after walking a short distance. "We did it. We won." Ron said to his bird.

Moments later, her the slight scraping of metal. He turned around and saw Ralph holding out his sword. Ralph was breathing heavily for some reason. Minuted went by and neither one did a thing. Ralph finally put his sword down, and put it back in it's sheath. "You win. I concede defeat." He said barely loud enough for Ron to hear. Ralph took a deep breath, then seconds later, drew a gun. He pointed it straight out at Ron, waited a couple of seconds, then cocked it.

Ralph pointed it upwards without even bothering to take a precise aim at Ron. Ron looked up and saw a Federation flagship slowly descending. He soon saw a metal pole extend from one of the hangars. Ralph fired his gun, which turned out to be a grappling hook device. The hooked end wrapped around the pole tightly and was secured. Ralph switched on the reel and ascended towards the ship. Ron saw him safely board and soon the ship passed.

Ron let go a big sigh of relief. And made his way back to the Typhoon. By the time he reactivated everything, he spotted the flagship returning. He grasped the controls ready to take action, but saw that it was just retrieving the Raven. A large metal claw lowered, grasped the Raven, and was on its way. Ron knew now that his journey home was successful.

Ralph entered the control tower and took his seat near the window. Just outside of Crisis II, Ralph's ship met up with five others. "Sir, our reinforcements are here, they're standing by right now." a radio operative reported.

"Tell them there is no victory for the Federation here." Ralph ordered. "Tell them to go back to their previous post and await a new command." The radio operatives did as Ralph ordered. "Now we shall set a new course. Set coordinates for the McFalen Estate." The five newly arrived flagships retreated to their previous post and Ralph's was headed for his home. "One last thing, my last act as a captain is to insure no Federation attacks upon Crisis II. There's no sense in harming your friends."

Ron reached his friends awaiting the results of the battle. All of them had to enter the back room where the emeralds were kept, since the hull and accommodations were expelled from the Typhoon. There Rebecca bandaged Miles's arm, Sonic was trying to relax, Knuckles was relieved to see the emeralds in perfect condition, and Tails was begging to hear the story of the battle from Ron. No one but Rebecca, Miles and even Ron mourned the death of a friend in Robotnik.

Ron entered the cockpit again and saw what he's been dreaming of for so many years. The giant skyscraper/tower where his ancestors once resided. And he was also looking forward to meeting his father, practically for the first time. Deep down he felt he lived peacefully here once, but he was way too young to remember. As the Typhoon's tracks touched the ground and was slowly making its way to the estate, he shed a tear. "I'm finally home."

White Feather...

THE END


End file.
